Students who enroll at the University of Arizona next fall will pay more in tuition than those who are already enrolled.
At its meeting in Tucson, the Arizona Board of Regents voted Thursday afternoon to approve the UA’s proposal to raise tuition and mandatory fees for resident undergraduates who start during the 2022-23 school year by a total of 4.2%, increasing the full cost of one year of attendance from $12,726 to $13,265.
That’s the first tuition increase for resident undergraduates since the pandemic began more than two years ago.
Incoming nonresident undergraduates will pay 6.2% more in combined tuition and fees than those students who are already enrolled, with the cost of annual attendance increasing from $37,248 to $39,567.
The board also approved tuition hikes for Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
“While it is difficult, I also am in support of the increases in tuition. They are well below the level of inflation,” Chair Lyndel Manson said. “It is not our practice to limit access to our universities for financial reasons.”
Although UA President Robert Robbins did not offer any explanation for the tuition and fee increases Thursday, he wrote in a previous statement that “it is a priority to keep tuition increases low.”
Tuition and fee increases, he said, “are one small piece of institutional funding for our priorities, which also include operational efficiencies, investment income, and resources for auxiliaries, as outlined under our strategic plan.”
Most current students won’t see change
Despite the increases for incoming students, 99% of the UA’s more than 38,000 undergraduates won’t feel the jump next year. That’s because the UA’s Guaranteed Tuition Program locks in undergraduate students’ tuition and fee rate for eight semesters, beginning with the term of initial enrollment.
The UA is also increasing its mandatory fees, citing a need to create long-term financial sustainability of student dining services, expand efforts to fight food insecurity, meet growing demand for mental health and health care services, and keep up with an increasing minimum wage.
The university’s health and recreation fee will go up by $175 per year (from $425 to $600) and its student services fee will go up by $135 per year (from $150 to $285).
Resident graduate students will see a 2% increase in tuition next year. With the increase in mandatory fees factored in, the total sticker price will increase by $555 (4.4%) from $13,460 to $14,015. Nonresident graduate students will see no increase in tuition costs.
Pushback against increases
A handful of students and faculty members used the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting to express their disapproval of the increase in tuition and fees.
“A raise in tuition is a direct threat to the livelihoods of students,” said Samuel Jesse, a graduate student at the UA. “We’re struggling. In light of the drastic increase in the cost of living last year, it will make it even more difficult for poor and marginalized communities to afford the hefty price of education — an education we collectively need to advance Arizona into the future.”
According to a survey from last fall, 66% of UA graduate students said they worry about being able to pay their monthly expenses, 63% worried about being able to pay for school, 38% reported financial concerns that caused them to consider dropping out of school, and 25% said they had to use a food bank or pantry to meet their basic needs.
“Raising tuition will mean that more students will have to make the choice between their classes and the ability to put food on the table, a bed to rest their head upon and a future free of crushing debt,” Jesse said.
As of fall 2021, 65.5% of UA students identified as white, 25.6% identified as Hispanic, 6.4% identified as Black, 10% identified as Asian and 3.4% identified as Native American.
About 27% of undergraduate students are eligible for a federal Pell Grant, which is intended for low-income students, and 34% receive federal student loans. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average UA undergraduate student borrower owes about $20,000 in loans at graduation.
At the same time, the UA offers multiple scholarships intended for low-income students, including the Pell Pledge Grant, Arizona Assurance and the newly unrolled Arizona Promise.
At the UA, graduate students receive a fixed rate for mandatory fees for a total of four years, based on their initial term of enrollment. However, medical students and veterinary medicine students are not included in the tuition guarantee programs.
Resident students enrolled in the College of Medicine’s Tucson and Phoenix programs will see a 4.3% tuition increase, while nonresidents will see a 1% increase. Both resident and nonresident students enrolled in the College of Veterinary Medicine will see a 3% increase.
The board also approved an increase in class fees for 16 undergraduate courses and one graduate course in the colleges of science, medicine and agriculture and life sciences. The colleges of management, education, agriculture and life sciences also created new class fees for seven undergraduate courses. Additionally, two graduate courses in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will see new class fees in two courses.
Additionally, both resident and nonresident graduate students in the College of Nursing will see an increase in program fees, while graduate students in the bilingual journalism master’s program and the philosophy, politics and economics master’s program will pay newly established fees. Students in the bachelor’s in nursing program will also see an increased rate of tuition.
Increased housing, dining costs
The UA’s on-campus housing and dining costs will also become more expensive.
Citing an increase in the state minimum wage — it went up to $13 an hour at the start of this month — the board also approved a proposed 3.5% weighted average increase for the UA’s on-campus undergraduate housing and a 2% weighted average increase for graduate student housing.
The UA also got approval Thursday to implement a mandatory meal plan for all first-year students living on campus beginning in 2023, which will be the same as the plan already in place for those students living in the Honors Village. When the plan is unrolled in about a year-and-a-half, students who live on campus will be automatically enrolled in a meal plan that costs $5,090, but will have the option to upgrade or downgrade their plan.
While Robbins previously said the university worked with students, faculty and staff to create the tuition and fees increase plan approved Thursday, Noah Vega, student body president for the UA, said student voices were not as prominent in the mandatory meal plan discussion as he anticipated.
“We understand the need for mandatory meal plans,” Vega said. He added that he’s in support of the policy, but only four of the 15 student representatives who were supposed to be involved in the discussion were present at the latest auxiliary committee meeting ahead of Thursday’s vote. “There needs to be more oversight and insurance that students are being asked about what they want.”
